Hug Day
by general zargon
Summary: Because Chloe is equal parts perceptive and mad genius. Also, AC has a revelation while learning to enjoy the hugs.


_Author's Note: Why, oh why won't the plot bunnies leave me alone?! X.X To all those waiting on me to update my other stories, I apologize but this idea just had to be written. I swear that as soon as I finish this one, I'm going back to tackle my other plot bunnies! I hope that you all enjoy my first try at writing a Smallville fanfic._

**Hug Day**

'_Okay…that was weird,_' AC thought as he was left standing in the door of Watchtower blinking, in a moderate type of shock after having been suddenly hugged by one of his teammates, specifically Victor. He became aware of the fact that his mouth was actually hanging open in shock a minute later when he almost swallowed a bug, but by the time he closed his mouth and somewhat regained his powers of speech Victor had already moved on to do whatever it was he had been planning on doing after hugging AC.

Still in a daze, he wandered further into the headquarters of the JL, just in time to see Oliver hug Bart, and that just about broke his brain right then. Especially since no one seemed to find the sight of _Oliver Queen_ going around hugging people strange. His eyes darted around the room, taking in Victor fiddling with some piece of technology that they had recovered from a raid, Chloe typing something onto one of the many keyboards that had taken up residence in the main room, and Clark eating a sandwich.

Everything else was normal, aside from the hug Impulse and Green Arrow had shared before parting and wandering off to different parts of the room, but no one had so much as blinked an eye while it had been going on aside from AC.

'_Yeah, definitely something going on,_' he thought as he watched Bart lean down and hug a sitting Victor around the neck for a minute before letting go and walking away. Cyborg just kept fiddling with the machine in his hands, and a normal person would have thought that he hadn't even noticed except for the small smile of his face.

Now AC was getting suspicious, and for a moment considered the possibility that his teammates were possessed by something with a touchy-feely nature, but his train of thought was promptly derailed by what happened next. Chloe started to pass him on her way to the coffee machine, paused, and then turned and hugged him around the middle.

That possession theory was looking better and better…

"Okay, what is going on here?" He demanded before the petite blond had a chance to walk away, and he was treated to the sight of the Chloe Sullivan 'what are you talking about?' Look, fully deserving of its' capital letter. And patent pending according to Oliver, so he wasn't sure if it was true or not.

The muscular blonde carefully detached himself from Chloe's embrace, gesturing empathetically to the left as Bart and Clark hugged as they went to and from the fridge respectively, as he said, "That! Everyone is being all touchy-feeling! Hell, even Oliver is going around hugging everyone, and no one's even batting an eyelash!" He became aware of the fact that his voice had raised and all of his teammates were staring at him incredulously, Oliver and Bart doing so in mid-hug. Face flushing in embarrassment, AC coughed before looking at Chloe expectantly, knowing that she was the one most likely to have the answer to what was going on.

And if not, the one of the others was likely to chime in and he would find out if his friends were possessed or otherwise under the influence of a foreign substance one way or another.

The woman known as Watchtower when on the clock looked at him pityingly, telling him slowly and calmly as though talking to a hysterical person (which wasn't that far off, incidentally), "AC, it's Hug Day, of course we're all hugging each other. That's what you _do_ on Hug Day," That…actually made sense, but what confused him was that he had never heard of 'Hug Day' before.

Chloe saw the look of confusion on the semi-aquatic hero's face and actually blushed, shuffling from one foot to the other before admitting, "Okay, so I invented Hug Day when I was ten, but that doesn't mean you can't just accept and enjoy it!" She suited words to actions and marched over to give Oliver a bear-hug, which the billionaire did not look the least bit unhappy about and quickly returned.

AC could only watch in bemusement as the embrace ended and Oliver hugged Victor five minutes later, before he shook his head both mentally and physically to snap himself out of the stupor he had fallen into. Yeah, he didn't really see how this was going to be anything _but_ awkward, but if the others were going along with it…

Three hours and a ton of hugs later, and AC was more than willing to admit that he had been dead wrong about the purpose of Hug Day. And that Chloe was a genius and they were lucky she hadn't decided to take over the world.

He had been annoyed at first, playing along only because the others all gave him the stink-eye if he didn't, but then he had actually sat down and began watching the others. That was when he had seen something that he couldn't believe he had missed before the whole made up holiday.

Bart was the most obvious, probably because he was the one moving around and hugging everyone the most, and if anyone else noticed that his hugs lasted a few seconds longer than anyone else's they didn't mention it. It was when he hugged AC that the semi-aquatic hero got smacked upside the head with the enlightenment stick. Impulse and he had passed each other on the way to and from the fridge and Bart had initiated the embrace. AC had gone along with it, and it was probably pure coincidence that he noticed what he did, that when he returned the hug he noticed that his teammate actually _snuggled_ up to him, gently nuzzling into his chest for a moment before letting go and going about his business of getting a snack.

And that was when it had all fallen into place for him.

Hug Day wasn't just a silly whim that Chloe had come up with and the others had gone along with, it was something that let his teammates have something that they would never be able to outright ask for: human contact.

The JL were all heroes, and more to the point they were guys (except Dinah, and she didn't count since she was currently in Paris somewhere), so they would never come out and ask for a hug. Not when they were injured, feeling down, after a mission had gone south, or any combination of the first three. In the end it was about comfort, and Chloe had made it so that they could have that comfort without being afraid of showing weakness or feeling ashamed of needing that same comfort.

Yeah, he was man enough to eat his words, and to just shut up and enjoy the rest of the day.

And if that meant he got to see the surprised look on Oliver's face when _he _initiated the next hug, well that was just a really nice bonus as far as he was concerned.

_Author's Note: And thus the plot bunny hath been slain! Whew, this was a challenge to write, but I thought it worked out okay. Please review and tell me what you think! As always, constructive criticism is welcome!_


End file.
